Serum Glutathione in Trauma Patients

INTRODUCTION: Glutathione has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various disease states including sickle cell anemia, acute lung injury, and chronic alcoholism. Trauma patients are usually young and otherwise healthy. Severely injured trauma patients are at an increased risk of sepsis and acute...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Academic emergency medicine 2003-05, Vol.10 (5), p.497-498
Main Author: Aisiku, I. P
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:INTRODUCTION: Glutathione has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various disease states including sickle cell anemia, acute lung injury, and chronic alcoholism. Trauma patients are usually young and otherwise healthy. Severely injured trauma patients are at an increased risk of sepsis and acute lung injury. Acute alterations in serum glutathione in trauma patients have not previously been reported. OBJECTIVE: Serum glutathione concentrations are decreased acutely in severely injured trauma patients. METHODS: The study design is a nested case control. Patients were selected from Grady Memorial Hospital, which is a level I trauma center. All cases were critically ill trauma patients with an injury severity score (ISS) >/=16 and were mechanically ventilated. The cases were patients who met the cohort's inclusion criteria and in whom consent for blood could be obtained within 12 hours. Patients with a history of alcohol abuse were excluded. Historical controls were utilized. All controls were healthy individuals below the age of 50 with no prior history of alcohol abuse. The outcome of interest was serum glutathione. Data was analyzed using a Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: 25 patients were selected. 4 were excluded due to a history of alcohol abuse. Mean time from injury to sample collection was less than 8 hours. Mean serum glutathione in controls was 3.71 and 1.41 in cases with a p value of
ISSN:1069-6563
1553-2712
DOI:10.1197/aemj.10.5.497-b